Volume 11 Issue 2

Rock Solid In a Manhattan conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows and a mahogany power table, the brain trust of the US Attorney’s Office SDNY planned their next move. Their boss, Richard Gaines, provided the inspiration. “Oh for fifteen,” he said. “Not a great start.” He paced the front of the room, shirt cuffs rolled up. Martha sipped at a… Read more →

One night I was browsing the Internet for something useful. I’m not sure what I was looking for. But it had to be there, right? I had found so much already. There was a fetish chatroom for acnephilia. A review of Asperger’s. Grumpy cats. I looked for something to buy. One thing led to another. I followed a link to… Read more →

Tsuneo knows before closing the door because nothing’s out of place. Her keys are on the hook; the ones with the big ruby lobster claws holding ‘Yui’. Slipping his next to his mother’s, he remembers when they bought them. The snow had come early and he’d nearly frozen on the drive home. ‘I know it’s cold but keep the window… Read more →

The light went out. Sanders came up the porch and knocked on the door and tried to look through the window to see Maddie but only saw his reflection. He knocked again. The light went back on but Sanders was backing out of the driveway, looking over his shoulder with an outstretched arm across the back of the passenger seat… Read more →

After reading Tracy K. Smith If not a vessel, a purse to hold the necessary scatterings and ticket stubs that show we prefer each other’s company when lights dim and sentiment is projected to the far walls. More sturdy than tissues, comforting than a cough drop. The bandage for paper cuts. If not the… Read more →

for Annie Anchorage we’ve never met But I write to your daughter often & she loves her mother well I imagine your skies are low Your buildings scraping them with ease Your children reaching up their fingertips To poke holes in the firmament Is this how stars are made? Your streets must be sunlit & not warm Exactly but layered—soft… Read more →

I learned about the Emperor Qin’s Terracotta Army for the first time in high school. At the time it wasn’t so extraordinary: We’d just finished studying ancient Egypt and every dead dude back then wanted to reign over eternity. The old monarchs curated their afterlives, filled their graves with golden masks, tables and chairs, food, drink, and even living servants to… Read more →

Cyprus icon Mary’s puffy crows feet have been crying about the world again, she misled us all. How in the hell did that painter jot her down so fast, before she could get her makeup on like normal? I’ve seen those Hollywood epics with their false street preachers rubbed in bone dust on every damned corner. I’ve seen their ladies… Read more →

Parque Nacional da Tijuca, Alto da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro When his father’s eye opens over him waxing him in cool light over the river, even us faithless are stunned. Whatever happens at last, I hope he can escape the old blood staining his robes, the loneliness no one told him was part of being human.